Get a leg up: Naked City’s chicken mole
ing lot of Dino’s Lounge in the rundown Naked City neighborhood, feeding the karaoke crowd. Topping their dogs with homemade relishes, chili and cheese sauce, the cart was a hit, and the partners soon expanded to open a full-time venture called Naked City Sandwich Shop in a tiny space adjacent to Dino’s. It was an immediate critical success. But they couldn’t parlay that into any sustained business. “It started off like crazy,” Palmeri recalls. “(But) it was before all this downtown stuff, and it’s kind of a crappy location. … The longevity of it wasn’t gonna be there — we knew that.” As the two struggled to keep the business afloat, another struggling businessman was about to enter Palmeri’s life. Bobby McKinney was fighting hard to keep his bar Moon Doggies open. “The recession hit me really hard,” McKinney says, remembering early 2010. “I had lost one bar, and I was losing this one. And I realized I had to get some food in here.” One of his bartenders encouraged him to visit Palmeri and Schaeffer’s sandwich shop. “I went down, and researched them and looked at them. The food was excellent; it was out of this world.” He didn’t hesitate. “I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. I just said, ‘Whatever you need, whatever it takes, I want you up here.’” With differing business philosophies, Palmeri and his partner Schaeffer soon severed ties. Palmeri took over Naked City Pizza Shop in Moon Doggies, while Schaeffer retained the hotdog cart and sandwich shop, which he soon folded. (Currently a corporate chef at the MGM Grand, Schaeffer didn’t respond to an interview request.)
Bar f o o d? Cal l it ‘ ult ra- cas ual’ Naked City Pizza Shop wasn’t anything close to a formal restaurant. And like his hotdog cart and sandwich shop, it offered ultra-casual cuisine — in this case pizza, sandwiches and wings. But this wasn’t the usual pizza shop fare. Palmeri’s pizzas may be the only example
DesertCompanion.com | 59